Sabres News

GAME 2 PREGAME UPDATE

by
Rob Crean
/ Buffalo Sabres

Lindy Ruff met with the media upon the team’s arrival at Wells Fargo Center this afternoon and confirmed that defenseman Shaone Morrisonn will not be in the lineup tonight and is “day-to-day” with an undisclosed injury. In a related move, the Sabres have recalled defenseman Dennis Persson from Portland of the American Hockey League on an emergency basis.

Another defenseman, Andrej Sekera, has missed the last three games with an upper body injury. Prior to Game 2, Ruff said that Sekera is “better,” but did not say whether he would play in today’s game.

Ruff also did not say whether Persson would play, but did say the Sweden native had been Portland’s best defenseman of late.

“He’s just a good two-way defenseman, so he’s obviously a player that’s had a good year down there,” said Ruff.

Persson, who was drafted by Buffalo in the first round (24th overall) in 2006, registered 17 points (4-13-17) in 64 games for the Pirates this season, setting career-highs in goals, assists, points and games played. In parts of three AHL seasons, the 6-foot-1, 192-pound blueliner has tallied 26 points (5-21-26) and 40 penalty minutes.

As for Game 2, Ruff expects to see lots of desperation from the Flyers as they look to avoid falling into a 2-0 hole in the series and knows the Sabres will have to counter that desperation.

“You know they’re going to step up their game; we know that we have to step up our game. It’s a tough situation. It’s a situation that we’d really like to go after. We got one here already, but at the same time, we know that their desperation level will be at a premium… you can’t take a shift for granted,” Ruff said.